Doug's Favorite Video Game? Murcielago Manual Conversions Coming! Go Buy a G Wagon!

Summary

Podcast Summary: THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends Episode: Doug's Favorite Video Game? Murcielago Manual Conversions Coming! Go Buy a G Wagon! Release Date: October 4, 2024

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1. News Highlights

a. Passing of Mike Valentine and Radar Detector Legacy

• Timestamp [01:32] Doug DeMuro: "Our first news story of the day, Mike Valentine has passed away. Mike Valentine created the Valentine 1 radar detector. Very famous person."

  The hosts paid tribute to Mike Valentine, acknowledging his pivotal role in the radar detector community. They discussed the challenges Nick faces in obtaining genuine Valentine radar detectors, humorously referencing failed attempts to buy them on platforms like Facebook Marketplace.

b. Porsche Carrera GT Recall

• Timestamp [04:32] Doug DeMuro: "The crow GT recall has been announced."

  Doug briefed listeners on the recent recall of the Carrera GT, highlighting the provision of free sets of Michelin Sport Cup Two tires and a $3,500 servicing credit for affected owners. The discussion delved into the implications of the stop-drive orders on Carrera GT owners and how these recalls aim to restore the vehicles' performance and reliability.

2. Talk Cars Segment

a. Murcielago Manual Conversions

• Timestamp [13:01] Nick: "I'm excited about some developments in the aftermarket scene... I have a Murcielago, it's E Gear and also."

  Nick introduced the topic of Murcielago manual conversions, emphasizing the industry's move towards offering manual transmissions for models originally equipped with E Gear automatics. Filippo expressed admiration for the Murcielago's aesthetics, while Doug agreed on the extended value manual transmissions could add to these supercars.

• Timestamp [15:21] Filippo: "But still, if it's a $500,000, $400,000 difference, you make that back and you get to enjoy the car, you definitely make it back."

  The conversation touched upon the financial dynamics of manual conversions, with Filippo noting that despite the hefty conversion costs, the potential appreciation in value could justify the investment.

b. Honda Passport Analysis

• Timestamp [07:47] Filippo: "Honda has teased a new passport... claiming it's more off-road."

  The trio scrutinized Honda's new Passport model, questioning its off-road capabilities despite Honda's claims. Doug criticized the vehicle for its lack of essential off-road features, likening it to a crossover in disguise rather than a true off-road vehicle.

• Timestamp [09:52] Filippo: "Or like this other one that we sold with more miles is still in under $200,000 car."

  The discussion compared the Passport to other models like the Toyota Land Cruiser and Toyota Tacoma, debating reliability and market positioning.

3. Top Car Segment

a. The G Wagon Recommendation

• Timestamp [42:58] Doug DeMuro: "I've decided everyone should buy a G Wagon."

  Doug passionately advocated for the Mercedes G Wagon, citing its reliability and value retention. He highlighted the early G500 models as ideal choices, praising their robust performance and enduring market value.

• Timestamp [44:02] Nick: "Why don't you... You sent me spreadsheets with data on like my liability."

  Nick shared his personal experience with the G Wagon, mentioning convincing factors like reliability ratings and maintenance costs that made the G Wagon a compelling choice despite its stereotypical image.

• Timestamp [45:04] Nick: "The tiebreaker is number of cylinders. So we got to go 12 cylinder first before we consider a V8."

  The hosts debated the practicality and desirability of different G Wagon variants, ultimately supporting the early models for their performance and investment potential.

4. Audience Questions

a. Best Cars to Sell on Cars and Bids

• Timestamp [48:18] Doug DeMuro: "What would self bring the most money? I don't know the answer to that."

  The audience posed questions about which cars would fetch the highest prices on Cars and Bids. The hosts reviewed unique builds like the Volkswagen Golf GTI W12.650 and the Nissan Juke R, discussing their rarity and potential resale value.

b. Heavily Depreciated but Reliable Vehicles

• Timestamp [53:40] Doug DeMuro: "What are your thoughts on heavily depreciated vehicles that are surprisingly reliable?"

  Filippo and Nick listed models such as the Nissan QP5 and Ford Explorer, emphasizing that certain depreciated cars can offer reliability and value for buyers willing to overlook brand reputations.

c. Video Games and Driving Simulators

• Timestamp [57:25] Doug DeMuro: "Doug, do you play any driving games? Such as Forza Horizon or Beam NG Drive."

  In response to listener inquiries about gaming, Doug expressed interest in realistic driving simulators like Beam NG Drive, sharing anecdotes about his past gaming experiences and how they relate to real-world driving dynamics.

5. Concluding Thoughts

• Timestamp [62:47] Filippo: "Best podcast ever."

• Timestamp [63:00] Doug DeMuro: "Thank you for watching."

  The episode wrapped up with the hosts expressing their enthusiasm for future discussions and encouraging listeners to engage by submitting their questions through Cars and Bids.

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Notable Quotes

• Doug DeMuro [01:32]: "Mike Valentine created the Valentine 1 radar detector. Very famous person."
• Nick [13:01]: "I'm excited about some developments in the aftermarket scene."
• Doug DeMuro [42:58]: "I've decided everyone should buy a G Wagon."
• Filippo [07:47]: "There's a Honda has teased, teased a new passport."
• Nick [44:02]: "Why don't you... You sent me spreadsheets with data on like my liability."
• Filippo [53:40]: "Am I wrong?"

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This episode of THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends provided an engaging mix of automotive news, in-depth discussions on car modifications, and valuable insights into vehicle reliability and market trends. The hosts' camaraderie and expertise offer listeners both entertainment and informative content, making it a must-listen for car enthusiasts.

Transcript

[Doug DeMuro]

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[Nick]

Come to me.

[Doug DeMuro]

Focus Features invites you to succumb to the darkness. From director Robert Eggers comes a masterpiece of horror. He is coming.

[Filippo]

This creature is a force more powerful than evil.

[Doug DeMuro]

It is death itself. Nosferatu. We did R under 17 nanometer without parent only Theaters Christmas Day. Special engagements in Dolby and Imax. This is a car pod. How do you like that start?

[Nick]

Little.

[Doug DeMuro]

Little like.

[Filippo]

Little like. I'm Filippo.

[Nick]

I'm Canon.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, this is Nick. Nick's filling in for Ken and Ken could not be with us today, which is very sad. But we have Nick instead, and Nick is insane. And so that's great.

[Nick]

And I'm from Ohio, so practically speaking, Ken and I are the same.

[Doug DeMuro]

Is that true? Yeah, they're both from Ohio.

[Filippo]

Can we transition that? Speaking of Ohio.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, yeah, that's so good. Nice job. Our first news story of the day, Mike Valentine has passed away. Mike Valentine created the Valentine 1 radar detector. Very famous person.

[Filippo]

The most famous radar detector.

[Doug DeMuro]

You got one, right?

[Filippo]

I don't.

[Doug DeMuro]

How many times have you tried to buy one off of Facebook Marketplace and it didn't work. I assume a lot.

[Nick]

I have escort passports, but only because they are cheaper and worse.

[Doug DeMuro]

And you bought them on. I assume you used off people in the Audi community.

[Filippo]

Or did you buy it off the back of a Motor Trend magazine from 1997?

[Nick]

You guys are on brand. However, I can beat you. I got them for free.

[Doug DeMuro]

Of course you did.

[Nick]

In exchange for a blog.

[Doug DeMuro]

Blog post. Yep, yep. Nick makes a car blog. You know, we should.

[Filippo]

We should.

[Doug DeMuro]

We should shout out Nick's blog.

[Nick]

It hasn't been updated in years.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, except when people want you to, don't you?

[Nick]

Except for when they give me a free radar detector. I update my blog.

[Doug DeMuro]

He's updated it periodically. When he. When someone, like, offers him something, he's like, I'll write a blog post about it.

[Nick]

This is a terrible. You googly About Mike Valentine.

[Doug DeMuro]

Mike Valentine, obviously very important in the radar detector community and in the if you're speeding and don't want to get caught community. Right. Here's another interesting fact about Mike Valentine. Oh, Mike Valentine bought a Carrera GT new.

[Filippo]

You're joking.

[Doug DeMuro]

The very next VIN after Mike.

[Filippo]

You're joking.

[Doug DeMuro]

Now, Mike Valentine's Carrera gt, he got paint, a sample signal yellow, the only one. And he specified plaque number 911.

[Filippo]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

Now my plaque is 543. My car is one of the serial produced ones. You might be thinking to yourself, how is it possible that car 911 came right after 543? Well, Porsche is a company that wants to make money.

[Filippo]

So what did they do to car 911 car?

[Doug DeMuro]

They just skipped it when they got to that. So Porsche was in the business of selling plaque numbers. This happened and we did it for 919. They were in the business of selling plaque numbers out of sync. And so it didn't. The plaque number didn't correspond to the actual production of the car. Somebody's like, oh, mine was the 9 11th made or mine was the first.

[Nick]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nah.

[Filippo]

What number would you have ordered?

[Doug DeMuro]

I don't know. I mean, for resale, you want number one or number 1270 probably. Or 911 honestly would be pretty cool. I bet Valentine had wanted one. And then 911 is pretty cool. And so it was still available. And so they gave.

[Filippo]

I would have done 914.

[Nick]

Hypothetically, what would that option cost?

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, they free and they do it if you're a certain statue of person, if you know what I mean. Like, they wouldn't have been offering it to me, I'll tell you that. But like Jerry Seinfeld gets that kind of treatment and there are other people now for 918, you could select for free which plaque you wanted. And so people were just choosing and it corresponded nothing to the actual production. And that was mostly true. Most of the credit GT plaque numbers are in order, but some weren't. And I've discovered that I have a VIN list of all the courier gts. And I've discovered going through it that several plaque numbers, many plaque numbers actually are out of order. But there is a general. The ones that aren't out of order, there is a general, you know, going, the 542 was the one right before it on the other end, et cetera. And then after 9 11, they went back to 544.

[Filippo]

You got any other courage facts for us?

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, well, thank you for asking, Filippo. The crow GT recall has been announced.

[Filippo]

I was really hoping for a fun fact. Okay, fine.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'll give you a fun fact. Design in Southern California, Huntington beach in a strip mall.

[Filippo]

That's true.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, Dead serious.

[Filippo]

Sorry, you were saying about the suspension.

[Doug DeMuro]

The recall is here. It has not been performed on my car yet, but in the next couple of weeks it will.

[Filippo]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

Here's the thing. I already made a video about this, so I'm going to keep it very short. They're recalling the cars. They're giving us all a free set of tires. I know Nick, when he heard that, he was like, can I have them?

[Nick]

Well, just not any tires here. They're Michelin Sport Cup Twos.

[Doug DeMuro]

Cup Twos? I looked it up. It's like three grand.

[Filippo]

What do you have right now?

[Doug DeMuro]

I don't know. But I'll tell you.

[Filippo]

The unfortunate part for you is that Cup Twos might be less of a good fit for your driving.

[Doug DeMuro]

I don't know what any of that means. I. To be honest, I don't think either of them really matter. But it's new tires now, unfortunately, I put new tires on the car when I bought it, which was two years ago, so. And only 3,000 miles. But they're going to give me those. So I'll have a set so you and me can go to a parking. When it snows. We'll go to a parking lot late at night and do donuts into the old tires and cup twos. No.

[Nick]

You must be relieved as someone who adhered to the stop drive order.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes. Thank you.

[Nick]

Like everyone else that had stop drive orders, you just parked it and let it sit.

[Doug DeMuro]

I thank you for bringing that up.

[Filippo]

Sitting behind them.

[Doug DeMuro]

Another thing they're offering is $3,500 in servicing credit because all of us career GT owners have been subject to the stop drive order. So the cars have been sitting. They're going to need some servicing to bring them back into health. And I'll tell you, it's been hard. Not driving the car has been tough. Do you think I haven't driven mine since Wednesday.

[Filippo]

Do you think that Honda offered the same to all their cores that are in their stop sale or whatever other cars are?

[Doug DeMuro]

That's such a great point. Like the Kia Telluride is under stop drive. You think they're going to give a pilot sport cup twos?

[Filippo]

Can you imagine?

[Doug DeMuro]

There are. I looked this up. Stop drive happened.

[Filippo]

And when once you see time improvement.

[Doug DeMuro]

I looked this up and there are like three and a half million cars on stop drive in the US right now or some insane number. You know, Ken's M5 is one of them because of the Takata thing.

[Filippo]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. Was it Ken and driving?

[Filippo]

Well, it depends on the week.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, it really does.

[Filippo]

The shop, the drive.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right. That's so true. Anyway, there's some Carrera GT information for you at the top of the pod.

[Filippo]

Mike Valentine RIP my Valentine important for the car world. Looks like this and drives a signal.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yellow crow GT that could have been you, dude.

[Filippo]

You could have.

[Doug DeMuro]

It sells periodically, you know.

[Nick]

And I actually think his biggest innovation was his advertising. He the like one to two page spreads in all the magazines at the time that like really gave you the detail. It really made you think like these are better radar detectors and like oh, it's really important to have the arrows. Like I think he was a master at direct response advertising.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, I'm sure the product was good too. But like as an ad guy he thinks about that. But you're right, I remember him. I've to this day. I mean that's an enormous part of what I remember from that era.

[Filippo]

100%.

[Doug DeMuro]

Every magazine, every car magazine.

[Nick]

Then you could skip to the back of your Dupont registry and buy a defense dog or mail order. Partners is right.

[Doug DeMuro]

They also advertised 100% and WeatherTech. WeatherTech is the other.

[Filippo]

Weather tech is the other one.

[Doug DeMuro]

Now they got a 250 GTO.

[Nick]

Yeah, that's right.

[Doug DeMuro]

All right, next news story. Filippo.

[Filippo]

Oh, passport you want to make.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes. The Honda passport has dressed up for all.

[Filippo]

There is a Honda has teased, teased a new passport. So the passport of course is the two row version of the pilot. It's a little bit shorter. The last generation one had no other changes discernible to the human eye.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right. But they pitched it as being the off road version.

[Filippo]

This one, which the Pilot was redesigned came out last year. The password is coming out later this year and they are claiming and trying to make the point that it's more off road.

[Doug DeMuro]

Ready? Yeah. Just looking at this picture, I'll tell you that it's not.

[Filippo]

There's no articulation.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, this is. It does look like it has some all terrains on it which is fine. But other than that, this looks like a crossover that's wearing some sort of costume.

[Filippo]

It does look like it has Honda prologue headlights.

[Doug DeMuro]

Will they sell it with this rack?

[Filippo]

I hope so. What a dream.

[Doug DeMuro]

That would make it pretty cool.

[Filippo]

That would make it noticeable.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's the only thing it says trail.

[Filippo]

This is a trail sport trim, which is their off road trim.

[Doug DeMuro]

But they have a pilot trail sport and it's a total joke. You know when I went looking for an off road vehicle, the family off road vehicle which no one wants but I want to. People are like, get a pilot trail sport. I'm like, I don't think you understand what I'm looking for here?

[Filippo]

Not. That's not going to do what you got to do. The. But the. The password trail sport. Despite only having two rows might.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, this will not. It's bad approach angle. As you can see, there's no front hooks. It's going to be a front wheel drive car. It's going to be. It's not going to be body on frame.

[Filippo]

No, of course not. But every manufacturer now is doing this.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Like the Pathfinder off road version. Remember when the rav4 had an off road version? I will tell you that they'll be like every other.

[Doug DeMuro]

They're all doing it in a cheap crappy imitation way of Toyota, which did it the right way. You know, the Forerunner and the Grand Cherokee sell enormous amounts to people who don't go off road, think it's cool. And Honda was like we want to compete with the Grand Cherokee and they came out with this trash that isn't. It's just an idea. Like actually investing in the product is what you need to do in order to succeed. The Pilot is a great product. You don't. The Forerunner is not based on the Highlander for a reason.

[Filippo]

Right. Of course nobody will take their Grand Cherokee off road because when it breaks down they'll be too far from the service.

[Doug DeMuro]

But if you want to sell it, if you want to sell the car, you got to convince people that it can and no one's convinced. And that was true with the first gen Passport. They were all sold to boomers in my neighborhood who were empty nesters who.

[Filippo]

Know one of the smaller one.

[Doug DeMuro]

They wanted the smaller one.

[Filippo]

I will give them credit because it's at least better than the Mazda CX70 which is identical to the CX90. There are. So that's one of the worst 90 which is the three row because I.

[Nick]

Was launching minutes ago.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is an all time.

[Filippo]

This is a three row Maz Mazda large crossover. Okay. Replaces the CX9. Although six nine might still be for sale. They now have the CX70 which is purportedly a smaller version. It is the exact same car, exact same length, just doesn't have a third row.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

And they're selling it as like the lifestyle one. And it's like, well, why don't I just get the third row one and then fold down. Right. That's a lifestyle right there.

[Filippo]

It makes no sense whatsoever. At least the passport is like 5 inches shorter.

[Doug DeMuro]

It is shorter. It is. It does purportedly have slightly more off road shops in my world to have off road capabilities. You got to be body on frame. You got to have recovery hooks, you got to have low range, you got to have all sorts of different. I mean the Sequoia terrain select thing, which is stupid, works really well. You got to have a light bar. You got to have camo. I got a light bar and camo.

[Filippo]

You got to have camo seats too.

[Doug DeMuro]

I got camo seats. I got. I got a bee and a goat with the purchase of my car.

[Filippo]

No, no, for 80 extra.

[Doug DeMuro]

80 extra after the purchase of my car. Anyway, that's the pile of passport.

[Filippo]

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[Doug DeMuro]

Next we move on to our next segment which is called Talk Cars. And in this segment what we do is follow along. We talk about cars. Nick, start us off.

[Nick]

Well, I'm excited about some developments in the aftermarket scene and neither of these are officially available, but I have a Murcielago, it's E Gear and and also.

[Filippo]

I can see it right now. It's beautiful.

[Nick]

It's. Yeah, it's a good looking car. The one flaw of E Gear is that the.

[Filippo]

Sorry, all of it is a flaw.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Nick]

People don't like the transmission. I actually think it's not as bad as people hype.

[Doug DeMuro]

Totally agree.

[Nick]

And that it's gotten a bad rap. However, if you look at what's happened in the Ferrari world, companies got really good at swapping them. People said, all right, I will buy the automatic and then I will swap it.

[Filippo]

You'll swap it to a manual? Yeah.

[Nick]

It's like a cottage industry with a lot of weird stuff going on behind the scenes.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep. But we talked about it when it happened.

[Nick]

It's been very successful. Right. So. And everyone's the. The price difference between a mural lago like mine versus a manual is usually 3x, sometimes more. But like generally speaking people would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more for the same car where the only difference is that transmission.

[Filippo]

Same year roadster, similar mileage. Manual was bid to 500K 186.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is a better example. Right. 4,500 mile car, $650,000. When your car is a 200 car. Right.

[Filippo]

Or like this other one that we sold with more miles is still in under $200,000 car.

[Nick]

Blue LP640. The LP640s were especially rare in manual. The 580s my generation, the first two years they were basically manual only. So like it's a little bit.

[Doug DeMuro]

A little more common.

[Nick]

But yeah, basically the manuals are worth a ton now. Two different companies have been trying to crack the nutrition. Actually it's technically the same company. It was eag. And then when EAG split, it's the investors of EAG of one company that it's both.

[Filippo]

Okay.

[Nick]

So they may. They may be like basically working off the same homework. But both are posting on their respective Instagrams. This is after their breakup of their development cars and showing oh, I can shift and then the next company I can shift with no warning lights on the dash. And then they're like oh, but your. Your odometer is not working and ours is. But they both basically have working prototypes. So if this is true, it could really disrupt the Murcielago market because maybe the price difference doesn't continue to be 3.4x for a manual. If people know they could buy an E gear and swap it, the swaps will be extensive. It's engine out. The cords I got initially from EAG before they had finished it was expect 60 to 80 grand.

[Filippo]

But still, if it's a $500,000, $400,000.

[Nick]

Difference for a six figure difference, you make that back and you get to enjoy the car, you definitely make it back.

[Doug DeMuro]

I got to tell you, I think about this a lot. I'm the type of guy who would buy the OE manual.

[Filippo]

Sure.

[Doug DeMuro]

I wouldn't pay the price difference. Yeah, no. And so it'll come down.

[Nick]

Yeah, I think it'll come down.

[Doug DeMuro]

There are going to be guys like me who are like, it just isn't worth it when you can get.

[Filippo]

I, I think the price for OEM ones will remain incredibly high.

[Doug DeMuro]

It'll remain high. But I've noticed with Ferraris too, there's a lot of guys like me who are kind of like, really, Should I spend all that money for a factory car? When a non.

[Filippo]

You want the shifter, you want a.

[Doug DeMuro]

Horse on the shifter. But is it worth 150,000, 200,000, $300,000 in some cases? I think this will be a huge deal. You're probably super pumped you're going to do it.

[Nick]

Selfishly, I'm. Even if the 640 or, sorry, the OE manual cars don't come down, I think the, the eager cars will go up. Just converted ones, people, they will become more desirable because everyone knows, oh, if I really hate the eagerness, I can just convert it down the road. I'm willing to bid higher.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's a good point. So your point is, even if it's not a converted car, it'll come up because the possibility is there it can.

[Nick]

Now become a donor car to become a domestic.

[Doug DeMuro]

So here's the question. EAG has an interesting history. Let's, let's put it that way. Or like, are you serious about that? You're gonna send your $200,000 car there.

[Nick]

And what I've told them is I am happy. I can forgive the history. I need to see complete. I don't want to be the guinea pig. I don't want to be car number two. I want to see like multiple cars out there and they've worked out all the kinks because no matter how good you design it, like, there will be some revisions over time.

[Filippo]

My recollection for Dirt was not that they had that much problems with craftsmanship of just with doing it at all.

[Doug DeMuro]

There were some issues. There were also some issues with some of the car. If you go on the Ferrari chat, there's some complaints about this wasn't working right after that wasn't working right after.

[Filippo]

The car never being done. And never getting the car back.

[Doug DeMuro]

But that was a problem too. But you're not worried about that.

[Nick]

I mean I would be worried about it for sure. You need to. You would need to plan the car be down for several months. It would be one. You'd probably rather buy one already converted than to go through the process yourself.

[Doug DeMuro]

But that's why your conversion will be worth more. Like it's that time that you're. That you're losing is work is the value that you're at.

[Filippo]

I imagine it's that you're doubling your investment. 60, 80 grand. 120 100. Given that this split is 3, 400,000.

[Doug DeMuro]

I will say that sounds insane. But when you look at Ferraris, they, they are worth more converted than they would be if not like, like the cost of the conversion. So like you look at 599 sticks, you look at 430 sticks and you look at 575 conversions, they are worth more.

[Filippo]

Yeah. And also for the cheaper end, M3SG to manual, M3SM E46 conversions are worth it, maybe less.

[Doug DeMuro]

So now get you the dollar back and sometimes it's just dollar for dollar and on the vanquishes it hasn't even been that.

[Filippo]

Well you have to send it to.

[Doug DeMuro]

They're not as desirable cars also. But on this car I have a suspicion you'll get your money back.

[Nick]

And it's wild that the mercy is somehow like one of the last AMG. I'm not AMG SMG E gear slash F1 transmissions to be converted. But I guess a lot of it had to do with the computers that they could. Anyone can manufacture the hardware, the parts. But getting all the computers, the TCU and the ECU and all the individual components, components that talk to each other has been that. So that must be the breakthrough. No one is obviously told the secret sauce to getting it done but. And I know of a third company that also is working on it and.

[Doug DeMuro]

One of the posts that I that you sent me said that like it's selling point was still has factory ecu.

[Filippo]

Right.

[Doug DeMuro]

Which is a big deal because there's a lot of other stuff that runs off that.

[Nick]

And yeah, the three or four that have been converted in the past use.

[Doug DeMuro]

Standalone ECUs, which is a whole thing. Like no one wants to buy a car with a standalone and go down that road.

[Nick]

Yeah, exactly. You lose the originality.

[Filippo]

So fingers crossed.

[Nick]

I'm excited.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay. On our top car segment, I have a little kind of a meta question that I for you guys. I got 2 billion views on YouTube. People, time on the street. Do people have people come up to you guys randomly?

[Filippo]

It has happened once to me a few weeks ago with next Nick and somebody came up and said had both of us and took a picture with us.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, wow.

[Filippo]

And it's separately happened to me, but I wasn't there.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right. Someone mistook him for years.

[Nick]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, but so this. This isn't happening. You're walking through airports. People aren't. You're in a lot of our videos now.

[Filippo]

I know. I'm so glad that nobody. If somebody wants to say hi, I'm happy to say hi. I. I'm not doing this for the fame.

[Doug DeMuro]

Filippo's not the type of guy who like, chats with people he, like, keeps.

[Filippo]

I don't chat with my friends.

[Doug DeMuro]

I have this thing about how Filippo refuses to see me on weekends. What time? We convinced him to come to a coffee shop with us on weekend. He was like so miserable that he had to like, be around. Be. We can. Personal time. That's where. That's where he sleeps. Right.

[Filippo]

I go to a coffin and just sleep.

[Doug DeMuro]

Do people come up to you?

[Filippo]

No.

[Doug DeMuro]

Really?

[Nick]

No, I don't think so.

[Doug DeMuro]

You did the P38 thing?

[Nick]

I think I got recognized more for being Mr. B7 and the Nick's car blog Legacy. I was really big in the Audi scene back in the day, but I. I have not been recognized for anything.

[Doug DeMuro]

Give us the story. Give us the story. Come on. You were Mr. B7. Did you know about this? No. Outside of this moment, you was famous on Audi zine. Tell us the story. Come on.

[Nick]

I don't know how you missed it. I was the November featured Audi Zener of 2011. No, for real, though. So I've had a B7, which is the 20055 to 2008. A4, S4 and RS4. So I've gone the full gamut.

[Filippo]

Convertible.

[Nick]

And I've not done the convertible. I've not done the wagon. They've all been sedans, but I've kind of. And I've modified all of them as far as you could take it. My S4 had Olins R compounds.

[Filippo]

Good mod.

[Nick]

Yeah, I tracked it.

[Doug DeMuro]

Wait, when were you actually the featured? Because I looked up November 2011, and it was these guys.

[Nick]

Maybe it was 2008. It was, we don't know, Golden Air.

[Filippo]

It was a rough recession year is all we know.

[Doug DeMuro]

One month, Audi zine featured you as the feature.

[Nick]

I lived in Arizona at the time. I organized actually the Wednesday night meetups. Through VW Vortex. So it was just like.

[Filippo]

Is that how you got your wife? Just like. She saw it, she met me pre.

[Doug DeMuro]

He was an Audi. It's actually funny. Nick has ridden the Audi train the whole way up to the Murcielago.

[Filippo]

Of course, now he owns.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, he had at one. Well, that he had at one point. He had an A4 front track, the front wheel drive one with a CVT.

[Filippo]

Really? Yeah, that was available briefly and was a rare model.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, yeah. And he had that and he had an S4 and he had.

[Filippo]

He moved on at some point and.

[Nick]

Then you had the R8 with the RS4.

[Doug DeMuro]

RS4, R8, Murcielago. He needs a Bugatti. He does.

[Filippo]

That's nice. Good point.

[Doug DeMuro]

The next Audi wants to go to the next level.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

The other. How did Audi lose you as a customer for like regular cars?

[Nick]

So that's the vag ways. I went into a Cayenne next. So the theory would be broad.

[Doug DeMuro]

They kept him like, you start as.

[Nick]

A young professional, you get your A4, you get your promotion, you get your S4, you get promoted again, you get an RS4, you keep going. And then you hit that middle age thing where you either have to downgrade because you have kids and you're too stretched and you go in the Volkswagen family or you keep ascending and you go into a Porsche. They've got it right. I thankfully made it into a Cayenne, although a used one, heavily depreciated. But like that is that when you see people in their mid-30s, they're either going down to a VW or up to a Porsche, they leave the Audi family.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick.

[Filippo]

What a shame for Audi, who sells multiple large family ses.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, he got into. They got him into Cayenne and unfortunately that's when he stopped. I don't know that he's ever actually given Volkswagen Rowdy any money. In fact, do you know, here's an amazing Nick fact. He one time took his Cayenne to the dealer first for a recall and they quoted him an oil change. And he thought the quote was so absurd that he used a free triple A tow to tow the car from the dealer to an independent shop where he got the work done.

[Nick]

It's even worse than that. So this was during COVID they would pick up and deliver your car for free. So it wasn't triple A, it was a Porsche technician drove it from Porsche San Diego to volunteer at the time to do the service, which had to be the most awkward key hand exchange. Key exchange ever.

[Doug DeMuro]

Incredible. But you had him quote an oil change, right? You were like, nah.

[Nick]

Well, I had a $500 voucher, much like your stop sale money. And so I used the $500 voucher than the rest. I was like, no, take it over here and they'll take care of the rest.

[Doug DeMuro]

God. That if there was a very question, Nick was the cheapest guy in the world. That is one of the all time classics. Would.

[Filippo]

What would it take for you to give Audi money or Porsche or any.

[Doug DeMuro]

Vh, although used usually all of these.

[Nick]

Lease specials like the Etron special. I mean, it's actually pretty appealing.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, he had a TTRS also. He really did a send.

[Filippo]

Really did all that.

[Doug DeMuro]

Wow, okay.

[Nick]

Took after I blew the motor on the ttrs, I also took it to Audi San Diego and said, what would it cost to fix this? And they're like, we don't do engine replacements here. But they gave me like a $18,000 repair bill and they're like, but how about we just upgrade you to a new ttrs? And I was just like, I'm done.

[Doug DeMuro]

But the answer is you were more famous. People don't come up to you yet. I'll tell you something. As this podcast ascends to the level of the Joe Rogan podcast, Jerry, you guys will become who?

[Filippo]

The folks on the Joe Rogan podcast.

[Doug DeMuro]

Not you though, Ken. And unfortunate.

[Nick]

I listen to caller daddy, but I've heard Joe Rogan's good too.

[Doug DeMuro]

As you ascend to. As we ascend to that level, you guys will become. You'll be like Bieber.

[Filippo]

I'm excited. Excited for the fame.

[Nick]

I'm being Vinny Chase here.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, well, that's an interesting.

[Filippo]

Except it for the fame.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay. He doesn't know what that means, by the way. He never saw that show.

[Nick]

Sorry they didn't have it in Italy.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay.

[Filippo]

I wouldn't know. I don't know what you're referencing.

[Doug DeMuro]

He's lived in America since 2001. He moved here on 9 11.

[Filippo]

For the record, we moved here in 02.

[Doug DeMuro]

Thank you very much. 911 was the catalyst. Okay, I want to talk about.

[Filippo]

There's.

[Doug DeMuro]

There's two other things that we're going to discuss in the talk cars segment. One of them is the Honda prologue situation.

[Filippo]

Yes, please.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay. I've said some negative things about the Honda prologue on this podcast on this podcast.

[Filippo]

Not as negative as a Toyota BZ4X.

[Doug DeMuro]

Some of those things have gotten back to Honda and they weren't happy, so they sent me a prologue and. And then they said hey, we. Here's the prologue. And by the way, we know it's not the most competitive suv, but you should try it out. And I thought that was odd because. And I especially. What a.

[Filippo]

Do they have PR people?

[Doug DeMuro]

I especially thought it was odd because Honda's weird. Like, their, Their cars are the. They have six core products, right? And they're the best in each segment. They're the best. Hrv, crv, Odyssey, Pilot, Accord, Civic. Right? They're the best. They're the best.

[Filippo]

Only they did a Odyssey hybrid.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yes. Well, nonetheless, it doesn't matter. The Odyssey sells like crazy in that segment. Right? Like, everybody agrees they're the best, but then they occasionally come out with cars that are either weird or not the best element. And the prologue is that I just find it so interesting that here we are in the world of the prologue, where, like, they kind of admit it. I was like. I said to him openly, I was like, tesla has better range, better acceleration, it costs less. How do you justify that? And they were like, well, it's kind of hard, but they were like, this is kind of. It's a prologue to a. And their, Their explanation for it, to answer the questions people might have after seeing me complain about their explanation for it, was that the. They kept seeing many buyers go from Honda to other brands because they don't even offer an electric car. And they never really have. Honda's never really had an electric car. And so they've seen all these buyers flow out, and so they want to at least have something. And their point was, you know, it's going to be the Honda of EVs. Like, it's good, it's fine. It's. It's maybe not the very best, but it's like, it's a safe choice. And there will be Honda buyers who want a Honda and want to stay in the Honda family. That's reasonable. They also said, although didn't say it, but I'll say it, that Elon Musk is insane and there are increasingly large numbers of evil.

[Filippo]

A lot of I bought this car before I knew Elon Musk.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. Bumper stickers. No, people came up. People come up to me all the time, ask car advice, our neighbor. I mean, I can't walk around my dog without my neighbor coming up to me, hey, what do you think I should get? And they increasingly say, I don't want to buy a car from Elon Musk, but I want an electric car.

[Filippo]

I will also say two things. First of all, Honda has done this before with the Rodeo for Example and.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Oasis and the SL Acura slx.

[Filippo]

Of course.

[Doug DeMuro]

The point being, what he's saying is that they created. They had a car that was some other brand's car.

[Filippo]

All is as it were.

[Doug DeMuro]

They were Isuzu and while they were developing their own car. And then when they came out with their own car, guess what?

[Filippo]

It was great.

[Doug DeMuro]

It was actually fantastic.

[Filippo]

The pilot that replaced it, the passport was excellent, right?

[Doug DeMuro]

The passport, the original Honda passport was the Isuzu roadie. It was kind of average by that they used that time to develop the pilot. It came out in a three and was like the segment killer.

[Filippo]

And has they basically realized that they were way behind. They needed something and something also. I think most consumers don't actually cross shop. They don't go to the Hyundai dealership and the key dealership and Toyota dealership and look at each of their EVs.

[Doug DeMuro]

They.

[Filippo]

They go with their CRV that's. And they see it in the showroom like oh cool, Honda does this. I buy it.

[Doug DeMuro]

I think Honda's point was CRV leases come in or people on trade in their CRV and they're saying what do you have for me that's electric? I want to get it. And their answer up until this point has been nothing. Now they can at least say we have this. Right. If people look at the numbers, the car will not be competitive.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

But if people just want a Honda, which a lot of Honda people. Be honest, like a lot of other people do. And you got to figure the only BZ4X sales are to people who want a Toyota that's electric. Because if you looked at any number. Any number.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

On that car, the price, the horsepower, the range. Any number. This is not a car that I want.

[Filippo]

Yep. No one. The I'm hopeful that they are. I don't know. I would have concerns about buying. Well certainly nobody's ever buying a prologue.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Leasing them and they have to get way to tide it over. But I'm shocked that they told you.

[Doug DeMuro]

Basically. I think at some point. And I wish more automakers would do this because at some point you have to admit the truth. Right. And I guarantee you if I had the GMP people, they'd be like the blazers best in class Blazer ev. And it isn't. We all know it isn't even the person telling me that what just like say what's real so that we can establish a good relationship and then maybe, maybe one day you can talk me into saying some nice things about your car. Like that's the theory about a PR person. But telling me that the Blazer EV is best in class is just like.

[Filippo]

Has the best in class lease deals that count for anything.

[Doug DeMuro]

I. So anyway, I thought that whole thing was interesting and I got to be honest, I've been driving the prologue around for the last few days and it's. It is indeed fine. And I could totally see how, you know parents who had to raise their kids in a pilot or an Odyssey and now they wanted, you know, their kids are in college, they want to downsize, they want something electric. They end up with a prologue and it's not the best. It's fine.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

And that's all Honda was trying to do this time.

[Filippo]

And honestly that's what most of their most cars are just fine.

[Doug DeMuro]

Those cars are fine.

[Filippo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Nick]

No non car enthusiasts. And you get that too. Right. The way they buy vehicles is very different. They're not creating spreadsheets necessary necessarily. Some of them are the analytical ones.

[Filippo]

No, I do it for my friends though. They come to me and say I want to buy a car or they're getting a spreadsheet.

[Nick]

My neighbor traded in his Kia Niro and he's like what other cars are out there? And well, he was like, he's like I just, it's my lease is due today, I need to figure something out in like an hour. And he just like he ended up just trading it in for a new one because he didn't want to be inconvenienced to have to think about it.

[Filippo]

Right.

[Nick]

And so if again you are loyal to Honda or just have had them.

[Filippo]

I do worried that it'll shine a bad light on Honda if like if the prologue isn't as reliable as they want it to be. But also evs probably are more likely to be reliable and fine.

[Doug DeMuro]

And there's other issues too. It's a GM interior. So everything is in kind of a weird place. Especially if you're used to Honda. Like the windshield wipers are on the turn signal stock in like a small little dial. But yeah, it could shine a bad light on Honda. But I think consumers forget this. People would never even remember the Honda passport exactly existed. The original one.

[Filippo]

Right.

[Doug DeMuro]

Or the Acura SLX and all that.

[Filippo]

Or the Mazda Tribute then tradition to a CX five years later.

[Doug DeMuro]

Anyway, that's the Honda prologue situation. It is crazy how people buy cars.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

I, I once read a statistic that something like 50% of people would buy a different car than when they bought if a different. If the their preferred color was available in a different car. Yeah.

[Nick]

The things that it can come down to at the 11th hour are like wild.

[Filippo]

You often hear about people that bought a car and then realized that the seat wasn't comfortable for them. It's like, did you not sit in this car? Like at the very least, like sit in the showroom, in the car.

[Doug DeMuro]

How many people come to you and ask for card, like your friends and family?

[Nick]

A lot.

[Doug DeMuro]

And even though you don't know anything about cars, like new cars, and I.

[Nick]

Give bad advice because I can tell you if as an enthusiast, here's what.

[Doug DeMuro]

I would get, right?

[Nick]

I'm not thinking about like people ask.

[Doug DeMuro]

You must ask you about crossovers. That's like the big one RAV4 series, but you don't know anything about. What do you say?

[Nick]

I actually like enjoy the process. So I will go research and look online and be like, okay, if you're looking for a mid sized suv, like here are the ones. And then I'd be like, stay away from this brand, whatever. So I, I try to give good advice, but it's, I have to remember it's not advice for me because my levels of importance of things are very different.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is one thing that annoys me about a lot of enthusiasts and especially a lot of enthusiasts forums and comments on my Instagram posts and Facebook and stuff is that a lot of car enthusiasts straight up forget. Like I will pause, review the Lexus rx, be like there you're getting paid. And it's like you don't get it. Like you don't get that the people watching that video and buying that car, that's just consumer advice. And they don't care that the X5 is a second faster. Zero to 60. That's not what they're interested in. And that's very frustrating for me with a lot of, you know, extremely online car enthusiasts.

[Nick]

There's, there's an old viral video used, I think it's called Supernormal. But the guy's giving advice to like a single mom of three and she's like, what car should I get? And he's like, duh. The only answer is an E30. You can track it and work on it. And she's like, no, I need room for my kids. And he's like, oh, well duh. Then it's a Crown Vic because you find lots of parts cars and change the motor in an afternoon. She's like, I'm a single mom, I don't know how to work on a car. He keeps going through enthusiast Cars.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's so.

[Nick]

So it goes to like a Miata.

[Doug DeMuro]

People don't. A lot of times people just don't understand what, what this real situation.

[Filippo]

Can I tell you guys? A four car people should buy.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Corolla or Civic Hybrid. Now that we've discussed, we discussed last week, SIG Hybrid, best car on sale. Y RAV4 Hybrid, which seven of my friends bought.

[Doug DeMuro]

4 Hybrid is like the car Subaru.

[Filippo]

Outback if you want something that seems sportier. And those are the three, those are the only cars anybody that I know has bought.

[Doug DeMuro]

I tell everybody to buy raw hybrid. I will give you a little secret. You already know this.

[Nick]

Super.

[Doug DeMuro]

I mean, give everybody out there a little secret. The Toyota Venza, which just went off the market because nobody bought it, because nobody had heard of it, is functionally very similar to the RAV4 hybrid.

[Filippo]

Better in every way.

[Doug DeMuro]

But the RAV4 hybrid has this name recognition because the RAV4, everybody knows it. Venzas are generally newer, nicer and cheaper and get similar fuel economy. And so if you want to Rev, use RAV4 Hybrid, but you want to spend RAV4 Hybrid money, go pick up a Venza for like 20% off.

[Filippo]

Stunning. How much of a price difference? Stores.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, Venza's got a little less room, but not much. And it, it's got that roof that you press a button and it goes.

[Filippo]

That sounds like a sunroof.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's an umbrella. No, it has one of those. Trans. Trans. Yeah. Like the 575 Super America.

[Nick]

There you go.

[Filippo]

And if you're listening to this, five years from now, go buy a used Crown Signia.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I saw one yesterday. Drive it along.

[Filippo]

You did? Yeah, I checked the other week because I haven't seen one yet. They are on dealer lots.

[Doug DeMuro]

I checked Acura, Honda in this prologue call told me they've sold a thousand zdxs. You believe that? People out there buying cars, we barely. But Nick's never heard any of these cars.

[Filippo]

ZDX is the actual version of the prologue and it looks a little bit different.

[Doug DeMuro]

You didn't know what the prologue was until this. Right, Right.

[Nick]

I'm looking forward to checking out the video though.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, Nick, you should pay attention to these cars because they're incredible lease deals. Someday you will have to lease something for 199amonth.

[Filippo]

And they're out there. Hacker.com the place to go to the.

[Nick]

Earlier point, my wife has had Ford Explorers and enjoyed Ford Explorers and we want to get Another Ford Explorer. Because we've like Ford Explorers.

[Doug DeMuro]

So you're not going to do any research. You're just going to get a Ford Explorer.

[Nick]

If. If that's. If she's cool with it, I'm cool with it.

[Doug DeMuro]

Let's.

[Nick]

Let's not waste an after what the Audi family.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Audi family needs you.

[Nick]

That's. That's the Cayenne and it's the Lambo.

[Doug DeMuro]

Cayenne and a Ford Explorer.

[Filippo]

Wow.

[Doug DeMuro]

Big balling over here.

[Filippo]

Wow. Moving from a ford focus that's 10 years old to explore.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick, I love you too. Thanks for being my family.

[Nick]

Thanks, robot.

[Doug DeMuro]

His name is Mike.

[Filippo]

Can I talk about a car that we. You should buy. People should buy. Yeah. The Nissan armada and Infiniti QX80.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, that's we.

[Filippo]

We malign greatly. But there's a new generation. Jeez. Of both. I'm gonna pull up a photo of them.

[Nick]

Yeah. I'm still thinking of the old Armada. I don't know what it looks like now.

[Filippo]

Yeah, it looks similar.

[Doug DeMuro]

He wrote this down. Here's what he wrote.

[Filippo]

I wrote it. I've written it down every week for the last four weeks.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Armada is underappreciated, just like the Kia Borrego.

[Filippo]

I stand by it.

[Doug DeMuro]

Look at that car. No.

[Filippo]

Yes. There's this one parked a block away from my house and I think about it every.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Borrego was in his wheel wheelhouse of date. So he knows what it is.

[Filippo]

Look at this one.

[Nick]

Model year only.

[Doug DeMuro]

The 9 only. Although I live in Dubai and they're everywhere. Turns out it's still being sold. There is the Kia Mojave to this day.

[Filippo]

Did you ever think there's a very. This is only to people our age. There's a vine where a guy slips and falls in his driveway on snow while shoveling. It's a great vine. There's a Kia Borrego in the corner of that. And the only thing I think about when I see that vine is the Borrega Borrego.

[Doug DeMuro]

They did a V8 one. They did. Anyway, the point is you're saying that the Armada is.

[Filippo]

A bunch of reviews have come out. First drives walk around. So this. The QX80 I think is a little bit behind it. And by all like they're apparently good and the interior has a ton of screens and tech and like the. It's all updated.

[Doug DeMuro]

It might be good.

[Filippo]

I wish it might actually be good. But nobody will ever find out about it. And it's a shame.

[Doug DeMuro]

The body on frame, full size SUV has Become increasingly kind of a niche car. When I was a kid, Suburbans, Tahoes, Yukons were like everywhere. Expedition came out 97. It was a huge deal. They were sold. Millions of them were sold. They become so expensive and so prohibitively large. So gas guzzling that like. But then again, my Sequoia, I sell well. It sells well in the sense that they sell as many as they make. But I never see them. Even new Tahoes are much rarer than they were when I was a kid, like.

[Filippo]

But this might be the most competitive product in the class and nobody will ever know.

[Doug DeMuro]

But body on frame, full size SUV's is not where you want to win the war. You want to win in the middle crossover.

[Filippo]

And I think it will be forgotten, but I think it will also be a deal in like five years.

[Doug DeMuro]

What motor is powering is still V8.

[Filippo]

In there, I think. I think there's a V8 and it's a twin turbo V6.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nick and I are V8 guys. We wouldn't touch this thing.

[Filippo]

Twin turbo V6.

[Nick]

It's weird to be body on frame and then a V6.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah. Although my Sequoia is that. And I'll tell you, the V6 is.

[Filippo]

425 horsepower, 516 pound feet of torque.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, I got more.

[Filippo]

Do you really? You don't have more torque than that?

[Doug DeMuro]

I do. I got more. I got 437 horsepower and 583 pound feet of torque.

[Filippo]

Big power.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm like a McLaren up in here.

[Filippo]

Big power. All right. But nevertheless, I feel bad for the armada because it's I think maybe the one good product that Nissan makes and.

[Doug DeMuro]

Shame somebody will pay still.

[Filippo]

But speaking of body on frame cars, I have a theory that late last gen, current gen forerunners are going to retain value and go up in value.

[Doug DeMuro]

This is a market report.

[Filippo]

There's a market report.

[Doug DeMuro]

Let's introduce the market. This is the market report segment. We are going to talk about the.

[Filippo]

Car market sponsored by Cars and Bids.

[Nick]

Yes, Barkel.

[Filippo]

No, no, that would have to exist for it to sponsor us.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Aspark Owl, it sponsors us by saying, oh, that's the sound. You know how all EVs have by law have to have a sound they make when they're going low speed. It goes down the road going.

[Filippo]

Cars and Bids is the best place to buy and sell modern enthusiasm. Cars you can sell for free, you can buy with an industry low buyer's fee. Carsandbits.com well, nice job. Thank you.

[Doug DeMuro]

Thank you.

[Filippo]

Looks like I've Been here for a while.

[Doug DeMuro]

So your point is that these are going to become big.

[Filippo]

So the new forerunner for 2025 is a not body on frame. It's a unibody. No, it's still body on frame but it's like a four cylinder hybrid.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, come on.

[Nick]

Come on.

[Doug DeMuro]

I love it.

[Filippo]

But like just like we talked about the Land Cruiser not being a real Land Cruiser anymore.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

I think that might. That reputation might follow the Forerunner as well.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay.

[Filippo]

And I think that somehow this generation which has been for sale since 2011.

[Doug DeMuro]

12. Yeah.

[Filippo]

Will remain really valuable. So we just sold this 2024 with 910 miles.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

MSRP was 56k sold for 53k plus 2k 2500 bias fees.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

So basically MSRP.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's which is.

[Filippo]

Which is like the rare car right now that is still worth MSRP after.

[Doug DeMuro]

You drive it off the line. It's an interesting point. I hadn't really thought about that. The. It was. This was a pro. It was a very special thing. It's like the FJ Cruiser, right. The FJ Cruiser went away. It was never replaced but they came out with like nicer for after the FJ went away they came out with these Pro4 runners that kind of replaced it. But it never really. This is an interesting point I hadn't really considered.

[Filippo]

The 4 liter is known to be excellent.

[Doug DeMuro]

People love the 4 liter.

[Filippo]

The new Tacoma is having a lot of transmission issues.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

And I might be said the Forerunner as well. And like this is just a known.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, I will say one difference between the Forerunner and the. I will tell you this. When the 4th gen went away as the last V8 people said the same thing and it never happened.

[Filippo]

But that's because it wasn't that good.

[Doug DeMuro]

Of a. I have a suspicion that the next gen 4 is going to be awesome. I haven't driven it yet, but I've played around with it and I think it is the coolest thing. Right. And I'm a big Toyota guy.

[Filippo]

The thing that they've become grown used to after 13 years on the market.

[Doug DeMuro]

Maybe I think you're right that they'll hold value.

[Filippo]

Like they might not appreciate.

[Doug DeMuro]

I don't think they're going to shoot up but I think you're right that they're going to hold. So this is a really good point.

[Filippo]

You know FJ values, right.

[Doug DeMuro]

FJ brings FJs bring big money. We sell FJs 50 regularly for 40s, 50s. Yeah. We just sold this one a couple days ago. This bid to over 40. They bring money. Yep.

[Filippo]

And this guard 57,000 miles.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep.

[Filippo]

And surely wasn't 40 grand new. No.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, no, they bring money. They're real. And I think that you might. You make a good point about 4Runner. That's, that's interesting point. But I. I will say I do think the new Foreigner is an improvement. The difference with Land Cruiser is a good point. The new Land Cruiser, I'm going to just say it. You ready? The new Land Cruiser is not an improvement over the old Land Cruiser. It's just not the same. It is a worse product. It's cool, it's neat, it looks cool. But the, the Land Cruiser used to be the top dog, big boy off roader, can do anything, 25 year service like this bad boy. And it just isn't that now. And the difference is the 4Runner. It's just kind of going to a new generation. And I think in time the new hybrid engines will be loved by people like. Loved.

[Filippo]

Yeah. And I love the new Land Cruiser, but I agree it's not the same.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's not the same.

[Nick]

Sounds like the Honda PR team's pitch of the new Land Cruiser. Not as good as the old one, but it's for sale. Yeah, I see a lot of the new Land Cruisers around.

[Doug DeMuro]

I think it looks great, it looks cool. But the problem is I still don't understand why people buy it over the Forerunner.

[Filippo]

The new Forerunner seems way more than for sale.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, but when it is, what's. What are people doing? They more expensive than.

[Filippo]

Worse. Very thin.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's thin.

[Filippo]

Especially the GX550 exists as well.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right. With a third row that the link.

[Filippo]

But not in the top.

[Nick]

No, that is, that is the real shame. I would. The Land Cruiser would be a serious contender if it had a third row.

[Doug DeMuro]

The Forerunner has it, the GX has it, the Land Cruiser doesn't. Doesn't make any sense. But if they did, that would slice it even thinner. And by the way, the Land Cruiser of today's world is the Sequoia TRD Pro. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

[Filippo]

The Land Cruiser of today's world of course is the Lexus LX600, which is the 300 Series Land Cruiser.

[Doug DeMuro]

Actually the Land Cruiser.

[Filippo]

Fine, we'll accept the Sequoia as the answer.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, next market report topic. I have a couple, but I'm going to specifically talk about G Wagon. Thrilling G wagons. I've decided everyone should buy a G Wagon.

[Filippo]

Which G Wagon should they buy?

[Doug DeMuro]

Listening at home. You want a sign to go buy your G Wagon. This is your sign.

[Filippo]

What G Wagon should they buy?

[Doug DeMuro]

Probably an early G500. So we have this one live right now. By the time you watch this podcast, it'll have long sold. This thing is green.

[Filippo]

This is a great car.

[Doug DeMuro]

The thing about G wagons is the following. There's two things. Number one, they don't lose value ever. So they're a little bit expensive to buy, but you will never lose value. Like I remember looking for O2G wagons in 08 and they were 30. And they're still 30. Yeah, it's like still to this day. I mean there's been some inflation, but the concept is the same. Right. The other thing is they're surprisingly reliable. This motor was one of the very most reliable. There's about three things I would do to them to bulletproof them and then you're like good for. And they're. None of them are expensive. And then you're like good forever and ever and ever. And the early G55 also used the M113. It was a slightly different version, but it was supercharged to 469 horsepower. This is the one to get an early G55. Great power, great performance with a couple of cool off roady things. How come you don't have one of these?

[Nick]

Remember when I bought my 958cayenne? You tried so hard to talk me into a G Wagon.

[Doug DeMuro]

Why don't you.

[Nick]

You sent me spreadsheets with data on like.

[Filippo]

On what?

[Doug DeMuro]

My liability. Yeah, because. Because that, that Steve Lang worked by cars, did that dashboard light website that tracked reliability and G Wagon was like his highest rated overall car. They are incredibly reliable.

[Nick]

He basically like yelled at me at this volume for three plus hours on why I should get one. And really the only thing that held me back was like the Kardashian image and it just being a bit extra. You can draw that.

[Filippo]

You can make it work though with like, like plasti dipping.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

The bumper guard as this person did.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Helps.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's the thing.

[Filippo]

Removing it entirely like this G500 doesn't have. It also helps.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, I think you can make it work. Go back to the other one. I think the way to make it work is you throw on some off road looking things.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

And it gets more XJ Cherokee than G Wagon. This has mud flaps, it has tail light guards and headlight guards.

[Filippo]

It has the roof rack I find.

[Doug DeMuro]

To be and some all terrain tires and that like. What do you mean you're backing up in the forest? How many times have you been doing that. You break your tail light.

[Nick]

To me, that throwback fifth wheel cover is actually really cool.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

For some reason the, the tail light covers just scream like, I street parked this in a, like Long Island.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, I don't know why. I don't know why. Backing up in the jungle, this car has seen monkeys. Monkeys have been near this car. That's what it screams to me.

[Nick]

Yeah, I, I do, I do. Like, I've loved my 958Cayenne. I also think that's a car like a lot of people should think about buying. But the G Wagon, you were right, did hold the value better. Yeah, probably. My Cayenne's actually been good on maintenance. But I think the G Wagon would have been extra, just as good.

[Doug DeMuro]

One of the great races that are especially reliable are the early 2000s ones with the M113. The tech is trash. I mean, you'd have to do a lot of work to get it into any good shape. The other big drawback, in addition to the image, which I agree is the biggest drawback. Yes. The fuel economy is atrocious. Like it's half what you get in your client. And so I'm telling you it's a good buy because it holds its value and it's unexpensive to own. Well, all the money that you save and all those things will go into putting fuel in it. Because in my convertible one, which is half the size of a regular, I get like 12 miles per gallon.

[Filippo]

And you're driving that hard?

[Doug DeMuro]

I do with, with no tire pressure. I mean, that, that helps. But those early, the early USG wagons, like 02 to 07, I think everyone should have.

[Filippo]

We have convinced in the last week at least one person to buy one.

[Doug DeMuro]

Sean should get one. Nick Stafford sent me this one the other day. Everybody should get one. You should get it. You should now get one.

[Filippo]

Oh, good idea.

[Nick]

That could be a good future build series for the, the channel, actually.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, I'll be like, oh, another reliable day with my G wake.

[Filippo]

Don't need to do anything.

[Nick]

That's true. There wouldn't be a lot of content.

[Doug DeMuro]

People don't realize, but these, these used SUVs eventually get priced based on their reliability.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

And, and nothing.

[Filippo]

That's like 100 series trucks.

[Doug DeMuro]

100 series. These are even more valuable because the market is discovered that these are really valuable and capable. And of course, the P38 is free. The least valuable. Yeah, free. Exactly. Okay, everyone should just buy G wagons. All right, next up, we're going to Move on to questions, questions, questions. Now we are pre filming this episode a week before. So these are leftover questions from last week. But going forward we'll have live new episodes. And if you want to ask us questions, go to carsandbids.com, click on the communities tab and there will be a post there that says ask us questions. You can ask us questions and we will answer the highest upvoted ones no matter how stupid they are.

[Filippo]

Correct.

[Nick]

Fun fact for you. I submitted a question to Kenan and even though I've been on this podcast a dozen times, I did this wrong. And I created a new thread with my question and it did not get asked because I did not follow the instructions.

[Filippo]

So look for that thread with your question.

[Doug DeMuro]

What's your. What was your question? It was just for Kenneth.

[Nick]

It was just for Kenneth.

[Doug DeMuro]

Was it about Emily?

[Nick]

I was. No, I was egging him on about the 355 restomod we saw.

[Filippo]

Apparently they. I saw in our news article today that they stiffened a bunch of like failure known failure points of the carbon fiber.

[Nick]

Carbon fiber never breaks. First good idea.

[Doug DeMuro]

First you know in the end it's going to come out that the carbon fiber didn't break on that. It was like the point where it attached to something else.

[Filippo]

On what?

[Doug DeMuro]

On the hull of the. Of the Ocean Gate thing. The Titan submersible. That's what he's talking. You remember it went down to the Titanic and then instead of getting down there, it exploded.

[Filippo]

Right?

[Doug DeMuro]

It imploded.

[Filippo]

Yeah, it blew up.

[Doug DeMuro]

First question from Big Ultima Hater 6. If these cars were to sell on cars and bids, which one would bring the most money and which would you buy?

[Filippo]

Okay.

[Doug DeMuro]

Volkswagen Golf GTI W12.650. Remember that thing?

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nissan Juke R Aston Martin V8 Signet. These are all one offs. They did make a few Juke Rs.

[Filippo]

But one go through each of them.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, so the GTI W12, they put a W12 engine mid mounted in a like a Mark 5. Basically. The Juke.

[Filippo]

Was it a Mark 6?

[Doug DeMuro]

Mark 5, Mark 6 around there. The Juke R, they put a Nissan GTR drivetrain in a Nissan Juke. This is one of my grail cars.

[Filippo]

100.

[Doug DeMuro]

The v8 signet was a one of one. They put the v8 vantage v8 in a signet. Wider fenders, wider tires and they sold it to one dude who said I'll only buy this car and finance the production of it if you never build another. And so Aston agreed never to Build another.

[Nick]

And so probably wasn't a difficult argument. It's fine. No one wants it anyway so we'll give it to you.

[Doug DeMuro]

Well, we can ever build another of this incredibly desirable car. What a shame. Anyway, the question is what would self bring the most money? I don't know the answer to that.

[Filippo]

But.

[Doug DeMuro]

But how about this? What do you want the most?

[Filippo]

For what's worth, the GTI would bring the most money. Thank you.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, that was like a real. That's a W12 GTI that would probably bring the most. A V8 Signet would be cool as hell though. Yeah, I know. Which I wouldn't looked up the Juke.

[Filippo]

R. Well, I just wanted to see. I, I know it but I thought I would see it again.

[Doug DeMuro]

What do you like the best of these?

[Filippo]

I think I would do the GTI W12 but it's like a tough. It's a tough decision.

[Doug DeMuro]

Wow.

[Filippo]

I mean look at which was mark six by the way.

[Nick]

The person who asked us definitely knows their stuff.

[Filippo]

Right?

[Nick]

That's like a real enthusiast versus just someone who likes a Maserati badge.

[Doug DeMuro]

Right?

[Filippo]

Wow, that's cool.

[Doug DeMuro]

Look at this thing.

[Filippo]

I. I think this direction I go but it's followed very closely by the. The Juke are. And trailed far behind by the Aston Martin.

[Doug DeMuro]

Really?

[Filippo]

Yeah. I don't care.

[Nick]

I think I'd put the Signet last two.

[Doug DeMuro]

Really? It's definitely my first. But unlike you guys, I've spent some time around a Signet.

[Nick]

The other two would actually be usable to drive. I would imagine.

[Filippo]

It's a. Honestly, this is not usable to drive.

[Doug DeMuro]

Nissan GTR powered Nissan Juke. Yeah. You wouldn't use it because you'd be. You'd be beating off all the excited people who want to check it out.

[Filippo]

Okay. This admittedly has here, this has a W12 in the back seat. Maybe not super usable.

[Doug DeMuro]

Maybe not super usable. Those Renault that had this had front lift. I drove one. It was kind of scary. And they had a V6 so it can fly.

[Filippo]

Is my takeaway.

[Doug DeMuro]

That car like. Like a CLK GTR?

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, the V8 Signet's the answer. Pull up a picture of the V8.

[Nick]

I think that would get like 45 grand.

[Doug DeMuro]

Wouldn't want a V8 second.

[Filippo]

No, we get more than that.

[Nick]

I would want one but I just think if I had to stack rank them they would be third.

[Doug DeMuro]

You don't think that's cool as hell? Look at those fenders.

[Nick]

It looks like something my 2 year old kid would play with.

[Filippo]

Yes, it does. It looks like hot wheels made a car.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's the point. You've. You know what? You've lost that fun. Pull that. Yeah. You've lost that fun within your heart.

[Filippo]

No, this is. No, I stand by my ordering. This is GTI Juker and then miles behind the ASMR6.

[Doug DeMuro]

No.

[Nick]

Isn't it also just like a Toyota IQ or whatever it's called?

[Doug DeMuro]

What do you think the Nissan juke is? You think that's like the high quality.

[Filippo]

Product that's true love, the juke in every incantation.

[Doug DeMuro]

The. The signet. Okay, so you would pick the. You both pick the GTI first.

[Nick]

Think so.

[Filippo]

It's. It's. It's a tough race for first, not a tough race for third.

[Nick]

I think that the. You can.

[Doug DeMuro]

That's so cool.

[Nick]

The tiebreaker is number of cylinders. So we got to go 12 cylinder first before we consider a V8.

[Doug DeMuro]

And then this. The juker is a six, buddy boy. Right, so you're saying it second.

[Nick]

That's fine. That's how I'll do it.

[Doug DeMuro]

You know, I'm going to tell you a little juke R story for you. I was bored this summer and thought to myself, wonder if I could pick one of these up?

[Filippo]

How much are they? Are there any for, like, where have they sold?

[Doug DeMuro]

All right, so they never sold in the U.S. that's a problem. I can't federalize it.

[Filippo]

I mean, just. You put juke on the title.

[Doug DeMuro]

One came for sale at a dealer in Germany that has super cool stuff.

[Filippo]

Okay.

[Doug DeMuro]

And they wanted all the money, and then that became half of all the money later. I don't remember a couple hundred grand.

[Filippo]

Okay.

[Doug DeMuro]

And I was like, you know, that's pretty cool. But then you got to remember you're driving a Nissan Juke. Yeah. R. Yeah, but I don't think that, like, goes to bottoms and 100 years and pulls all the money, you know, in front of. In front with a British auctioneer. And then, you know, this was a Nissan juke.

[Filippo]

No, but it goes to, like fast and furious movie set. But I want fast 20.

[Nick]

You could never recreate the other two cars in your garage over a couple cold ones. But I think put a GTR engine into a juke.

[Doug DeMuro]

Every time I see the high performance juke, which was the sr, which is no extra power, but the body kit. I think that. Exactly. Yeah.

[Filippo]

Okay. The car that you can most create in your garage is this.

[Doug DeMuro]

I can't even buy one. I can't even buy one.

[Filippo]

Oe. Well, you buy an iq, which you could buy OE and then you don't.

[Doug DeMuro]

Even understand how many changes. As a man who spent time with a signet okay. In. In a. In a parking lot in the San Fernando Valley, I know very well this car is not just a Toyota iq. This got a bad reputation.

[Nick]

It's got hood vents.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's got vents. All right. Yeah.

[Filippo]

Okay, next question please.

[Doug DeMuro]

V8 signal the answer and by the way, the commenters will agree with me. Next. Next question. From prancing me, what heavily depreciated vehicles are surprisingly reliable?

[Nick]

QP5.

[Doug DeMuro]

I actually late.

[Filippo]

Late QB5. Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Late QB5. V8 Vantage.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

E55 with the blown V8.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

03 to 06 E55AMG and other which are cheap. Yeah, they're cheap but they're 470 horsepower. They're fast. I'll tell you, ISF is not heavily like there are cars that trade that like because the manufacturer's rep is bad. They're cheap but they shouldn't be, you.

[Filippo]

Know what is Cayenne's?

[Doug DeMuro]

Cayenne's.

[Filippo]

All kinds Cayenne's.

[Doug DeMuro]

We get Cayennes routinely submitted us to 200,000 miles. Can't be that unreliable.

[Filippo]

I tried to convince Sean who we convinced by a Jeep, a G wagon to instead buy a Cayenne by sending him really cheap kind results. And they're like 13 grand for now.

[Doug DeMuro]

For 13 miles, what's that worth?

[Nick]

12?

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Nick]

18 maybe if I'm lucky. That's because I have cool spec.

[Doug DeMuro]

Cool spec, man. Black on red. Black on red. I think that there are some cars there. They depreciate because the manufacturer has a bad rep for reliability. But the individual cars themselves are actually pretty reliable. Panamera Cobalt SS okay, next question.

[Filippo]

Am I wrong?

[Nick]

I was going to throw the Arnage T in there as well just because they are 20k cars and you can. You could drive them pretty.

[Doug DeMuro]

They're not reliable. They're known to not be reliable.

[Nick]

They're compared to the red label and the green label. They are.

[Doug DeMuro]

Other versions of the same car that were worse. There were probably other examples of something.

[Filippo]

I saw something the other day that really stuck out to me but I don't know what it was now. Well, I'll never know.

[Doug DeMuro]

XC90s.

[Filippo]

Which gen?

[Doug DeMuro]

First.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

Threes.

[Filippo]

Second generosity. Cheap.

[Doug DeMuro]

Two. Five. Anyway, that's a good question. There actually are some cars and there's. There's a. It's a pretty good play if you do that because there are like the Aston's I think is A great example. They really. Aston's rep has pushed the values of those cars down. But I don't think that they, beginning with the 06, the AJ cars, really deserve that rep. And I think they actually tend to be pretty reliant.

[Filippo]

I think that they. You're right. Brand reputation matters a lot. So, like, yeah, Ford Excursions, on the other side of thing, everybody knows which engines are desirable and prices reflect it.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep.

[Filippo]

Because everybody knows.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yep.

[Filippo]

Seven three, the one you get. But yeah, on an Aston, no, everybody just assumes they're unreliable. Doesn't. Don't do.

[Doug DeMuro]

They don't do the research. Nobody did the research.

[Nick]

The QP5 is a great example. The early ones were bad. It had the F1 transmission, it had cam variator issues. They're worth nothing. And then people don't realize, they change the transmission, they change the cam Verita, they fix all these problems.

[Doug DeMuro]

It actually is a pretty desirable car.

[Nick]

But damage was done because they say, oh, that generation of QP5 is trash. Don't touch it.

[Doug DeMuro]

In fact, Ian Maserati's rep in general, I think, has that problem. And so. And so that's a. I would argue that yours is kind of like the one era that's good though, because the next gen Maseratis were Chrysler stuff.

[Nick]

Yeah, yeah.

[Doug DeMuro]

And. Or anything earlier has these problems.

[Nick]

But I even talked to mechanics, like people who work on these cars, and they're like, please, for the love of God, I beg you, do not buy this car. It is the worst decision you've ever made. And I was like, no, I have a P38. I know about unreliable cars. And they're like, you don't understand. Do not buy this car. Car. You will regret it. And it's been great. It's got 90, 000 miles.

[Filippo]

You've owned it for a day, legally.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, I agree with you. I think that even those mechanics. It's hard when you're a mechanic who sees a million cars, a million different varieties, to really understand the distinct differences between. Unless you. Unless you yourself put the time into it, and most of them don't. And to really understand, hey, although I see a lot of QPS, I'm not seeing a lot of 11 to 13 models. I'm not seeing. You know, that's hard.

[Nick]

Right? Enthusiasts do that. Everyone else says, my Nero lease is due today and I need to replace it quick so that I can get the work tomorrow. Which, you know, should I get in return.

[Filippo]

Totally.

[Doug DeMuro]

Next question from Paul Hanrahan. Doug, do you play any driving games? Such as Forza Horizon or Beam NG Drive. I watch a lot of Beam NG Drive videos.

[Filippo]

Do you watch them go over, like, progressively larger holes and buses?

[Doug DeMuro]

You do this?

[Nick]

I have no. Never heard of this.

[Doug DeMuro]

Really? You know, when you're on calls, Zoom calls at work, you don't do this. I do this on most Zoom calls. Like, 80% of Zoom calls.

[Filippo]

We know.

[Doug DeMuro]

Like, you just. There's. There's a. There's a game called Beam Engine Drive. It's like a realistic car physics simulator. And you can have, like, giant Thor's hammer, like, in the road. And so the. It's like you could. You can drive like, a QP5 or a Mercy and see what would happen if it crashed into Thor's hammer and the damage is, like, very realistic.

[Filippo]

I want to make clear it's a great physics engine. It does not rot realistic for, like, the safety. Do you have a vehicle if you watch those videos?

[Doug DeMuro]

I think it's great for everything you should do. I'm gonna send you some links.

[Nick]

All right. All right. I will. I will check that out.

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm telling you. Beam Energy drive compilations on YouTube. You'll spend two out. You lost two hours. You might not have kids the next day. You just be. Just be. I'm sorry, I. I have to watch these.

[Nick]

I'll block out my calendar kids in.

[Doug DeMuro]

That day because the kids want to. Daddy, will you play with me? He's like, no, I can't.

[Filippo]

Right?

[Doug DeMuro]

I'm busy. But really, he's watching.

[Nick]

It sounds like something kids would enjoy.

[Doug DeMuro]

He's watching school buses. School buses go into a giant spinner. He's watching, right? Like, they'll put in, like, road bumps. They're like four feet tall, and they'll run cars at him at 150 miles an hour. And you just got to see what happens.

[Nick]

All right.

[Filippo]

Did you ever play any of the truck simulator? There's also bus simulator. Yes.

[Doug DeMuro]

The question is, do I play any game? No, I don't, but I want to.

[Filippo]

You used to there.

[Doug DeMuro]

I used to. I used to be really good at Forza.

[Filippo]

I could be there somebody that, like, did. But, yeah, I love Euro Grand Tourismo.

[Nick]

For real driving experience. And then what was the game? I. I love, like, all the old games. My favorite memories was. Do you remember the. I think it was Iron man, the video game. He was like. It was like an off road. You had a pickup truck.

[Filippo]

Oh, yes, I do, actually.

[Nick]

Yeah. I would play those at, like, bowling alleys and, like, other Midwest gathering spots.

[Doug DeMuro]

The only time, I guess I play video games now. Cruising USA outrun and cruising when I stumble. I was in Austria, Vienna this summer and there was an arcade that had outrun, which is the Ferrari one. Yeah.

[Nick]

And there's also a really great Ferrari 355 challenge simulator that's super realistic that if you find those at like a Dave and Busters, like, I'm like, again, block out the next two hours.

[Doug DeMuro]

He doesn't have kids.

[Nick]

You have no. You have no dad anymore. Like we're playing this game.

[Doug DeMuro]

Okay, next question. Last question. Oh, this is a good one from Costanic. Hey, Doug, love your reviews. Just curious, how is it possible you own a G class Cabriolet, but you haven't yet reviewed the Mercedes Maybach G50 lawn delay? Pull up a picture, please. Of course, Seems like the ultimate G class experience and I would love your opinion. I agree. It's the ultimate G class. A lot of people think the ultimate G class is the six wheel drive pickup truck. They're wrong. It was this. Not only did this have a V12, a twin turbo V12, but it had portal axles and a half convertible top. And do you know why it's a half convertible top fleet?

[Filippo]

Because they couldn't make it work with the full convertible.

[Doug DeMuro]

No. Do you take a look at that top and see if you recognize it from any other car? That's right. It's the top from the regular G500 cabriolet.

[Filippo]

You see that's design right there.

[Doug DeMuro]

You notice the circle window or the triangle window?

[Filippo]

Yeah, that's the back of your bar. Oh, my God.

[Doug DeMuro]

They got that from the regular G5,500 cabriolet. And they figured, hey, we could do a full convertible top or we could make it like this is a chauffeur thing and just use existing parts. And they did that and they charged a million dollars for it.

[Filippo]

Why haven't you reviewed? There are a few floating around.

[Doug DeMuro]

There's a few floating around in SoCal. There was one for sale at a dealer up in OC and they had it for sale, but they were like, the owner wants us to be quiet about it so we can't review it. And anytime anybody's trying to sell something and they want you to be quiet about it, you just know the person is both sketchy and stupid. Both of those things. Yeah. And unfortunately, so unfortunately I wasn't able to review it, but instead we can look at it here.

[Filippo]

Unfortunately, I think that I want, if I'm driving this V12 Beauty, I want to have the convertible top apply to me.

[Doug DeMuro]

No, you're the driver. You're the driver, right? You are my chauffeur. It doesn't. I don't care what you want.

[Filippo]

Why do I have a V12?

[Doug DeMuro]

Because I, the passenger, want to experience you. This we're in like India or the Middle East. Like, you're a driver, you're paid nothing. I sit there and drink champagne in the back while you go a million miles.

[Filippo]

I will be paid nothing to drive you around in this.

[Doug DeMuro]

Oh, wow. We'll do it anyway. That's the story on the lawn delay. I'd love to review one someday. If anybody has one, send it, send.

[Filippo]

It to me and then we'll bring it down.

[Doug DeMuro]

By the way, pull up the rear. Pull up the rear compartment. G50 long delay rear.

[Nick]

I was just about to ask, is this three row or do you just have a lot of two row?

[Doug DeMuro]

But you'll be blown away. No rear interior. You'll be blown away by what it looks like inside. I apologize.

[Filippo]

I don't know how to enter the situation.

[Doug DeMuro]

The rear interior is basically the front interior of a G Wagon. No, no. Pull up the showing. Yeah, yeah, that, that, that, that, that, that, that. It's the front interior of a G Wagon. But what they've done is they've put two glove boxes. They're just regular G wagon glove boxes. They've put two center infotainment systems, just regular G Wagon infotainment systems. And they. This center console is the same one from the regular G wagon in front. This car was conceived like cheaply and poorly and they got a million bucks for it.

[Filippo]

Brilliant.

[Doug DeMuro]

It's one of the great stories in the history.

[Filippo]

BMW wishes they could do it.

[Doug DeMuro]

BMW wishes they could do it. Instead they're selling XMs for throwback there.

[Filippo]

To last week's episode. If you haven't gotten. If you haven't listened to that.

[Doug DeMuro]

And there you go. That's our podcast. Filipo, any parting thoughts?

[Filippo]

Best podcast ever.

[Doug DeMuro]

Best we've ever done. Nick, thank you for joining us. Kenan will be back next week, hopefully, we think. Yeah.

[Filippo]

Depends on how Emily's doing.

[Doug DeMuro]

Yeah, Emily. Oh boy. She took a turn for the worse.

[Filippo]

Not. Not health wise, just in general.

[Doug DeMuro]

Bye everyone. Thank you for watch.